that had brought him
fame. He was careful, however, not to duplicate anything that Benny
Turton did, for he did not want to "crab" the act of his friend.

But Joe's fire and water act was one of the big features on the circus
bill.

"Is this the sensation you were speaking of?" asked Helen one day, when
they had concluded an afternoon's performance.

"No," answered Joe. "This only came about by accident. I'm working on
something more sensational yet, and I am going to ask you to help me."

"I'm sure I'll do anything I can," said she.

"You won't be in any danger," the young magician went on. "I'm beginning
to understand fire better the more I study it. I'm not getting too
familiar, either, let me tell you. Even a little scorch is very
painful."

"I glanced through one of your books the other day," remarked Helen. "Do
you really suppose some of those old magicians actually handled fire in
the way it is stated?"

"Well, at least they pretended to," said her friend. "There are tricks
in all trades, you know."

As the circus went on its way business kept up well, and it was seen
that the season was going to be an excellent one from a financial
standpoint.

"Any more bogus tickets coming in?" asked Joe one day of the treasurer.

"Not since we adopted the new style," was the answer.

"Have the detectives gotten on the trail of the man, or the men, who
cheated us?" asked Helen.

"Not yet," reported Mr. Moyne. "The last report I had from them was that
they were getting nearer and nearer to a certain person whom they
suspected. They promise an arrest soon."

"That's the usual story," remarked Joe. "However, we don't so much care
about an arrest now if we have stopped the counterfeit tickets from
being worked off on us."

"Well, there's always a chance that the same thing will happen again,"
returned Mr. Moyne. "It's too easy money for the criminals to give up,
I'm afraid. I'm on the lookout every day for more counterfeits."

"Well, I'll leave it to you," remarked Joe. "Whenever anything happens
let me know and we'll take some action."

Joe Strong was now kept very busy in the circus. In fact he was what
would be called a "star." He did his mystery box trick, and, with Helen,
worked the "vanishing lady" trick so neatly that no one guessed how it
was done. The ten thousand dollars was not claimed, successfully, though
several tried it, with the result that several local Red Cross
organizations were enriched by